Sheet handling apparatus and method



Nov. 12, 1968 Y. GUILLAUME 0,

SHEET HANDLING APPARATUS AND METHOD Filed Feb. 5, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Yves GUILLAUME.

Nov. 12, 1968 Y. GUILLAUME 3,410,425

SHEET HANDLING APPARATUS AND METHOD Filed Feb. 5, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 3mm YVES GulLLAuME United States Patent 3,410,425 SHEET HANDLING APPARATUS AND METHOD Yves Guillaume, Saint Gobain, France, assignor to Compaguie de Saint-Gobain, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Filed Feb. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 524,801 Claims priority, application France, Mar. 29, 1965,

13 Claims. (Cl. 214-7 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Sheets of material such as glass come from a production line and are sequentially pivoted from a horizontal to an essentially vertical position. As each sheet approaches the vertical, its increasing weight component acting upon abutments in contact with the lower edge of the sheet, acts to retract the abutments to allow the sheet to descend a short distance onto a mobile truck or pallet. At the same time rollers associated with the abutments, nudge the lower edge of the sheet into full line contact with a sheet previously emplaced. The sheet then pivots slightly into full surface contact with the previous sheet.

This invention relates to apparatus for handling sheets of material of large transverse and longitudinal dimensions relatively to their thickness and which by reason of their fragility must be moved and handled with particular care. As examples of such sheets there may be mentioned materials of glass, metal, fiber and cement.

During their manufacture and processing such sheets are in general positioned horizontally and moved horizontally on conveyors, to the location where they are to be stored or stocked. It is customary to store such sheets in lots which are essentially vertical and in surface-to-surface contact. A common procedure is, when each sheet arrives at the terminus of the horizontal conveyor, to pivot it to an essentially vertical position while simultaneously transferring it to a platform which may be mobile, as by mounting on wheels. The platform may have means centrally upstanding therefrom to support the sheets in a position slightly inclined inwardly with respect to the vertical; and two lots or piles are customarily loaded onto a single platform, each on a respective side of the support and oppositely inclined thereto.

In forming a pile of sheets it is usual to receive each sheet in sequence, at the end of a conveyor and to transfer it to a loading table located at the terminus of the conveyor and forming a prolongation thereof. This table is provided with stops or abutments located along its transverse edge remote from the conveyor, and is pivotable about a normally horizontal axis to first bring the adjacent edge of the sheet into contact with the abutments and then to elevate the sheet from a horizontal to an essentially vertical position. Following this the sheet is transferred in vertical position, from the table to the aforesaid platform. In effecting this transfer the table is brought to a position with respect to the platform, such that the lower portion of the sheet being handled comes into contact with the lower portion of the previouslyloaded sheet in place upon the platform.

It is very important, especially in handling fragile glass sheets, that the contact between the lower edge of the sheet being loaded and the one previously positioned upon the platform, as just explained, shall be along the entire length of the sheet, so that the two will be in full surface-tocurface contact when the second one has been fully emplaced on the platform.

However, despite the importance of correctly emplacing each sheet upon the platform, as aforesaid, this has pre- 3,410,425 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 viously been a troublesome procedure or operation because of the difficulty of correctly locating the table with respect to the platform. But unless this is done with a high degree of accuracy, improper placement of the sheets becomes cumulative with the result that concentrated loads due to friction and weight are placed upon the stacked sheets and this can easily result in breakage of one or more of them, especially the one being emplaced.

It is the chief purpose and object of the present invention, to provide an apparatus which effectively solves the problems described in the preceding paragraphs, and which automatically assures that each sheet is properly located as it is pivoted from the horizontal to the vertical, and is transferred smoothly and accurately into full surface contact with the sheet previously emplaced upon the platform.

It is a further object to provide an apparatus of the type described, which is relatively simple and inexpensive to produce, yet highly reliable and long-lived in operation.

A further object is to provide a mechanism as described, that eliminates breakage of sheets of fragile material otherwise caused by rough, careless or inexperienced handling, and thus reduces costs per unit area of usable sheet material.

Other objects and advantages will become clear to those skilled in the art, after a study of the following detailed description.

In general, the invention involves means by which the aforesaid stops or abutments for the leading edge of the sheet are not fixed to the table as in prior art devices but, to the contrary, are so mounted to the table as to have a certain freedom of movement, relatively thereto. This movement is such that as the sheet rises in pivotal movement about a normally horizontal axis, it is also automatically displaced or adjusted transversely of its own plane in order to bring the lower edge or portion of the sheet into contact with the corresponding portion of the one previously emplaced upon the platform, so that the sheet being loaded moves into full surface contact with thepreviously loaded one, as it moves into the vertical position.

According to another characteristic of the invention the aforesaid movable abutments are displaced or moved toward the platform until the guide means forming parts of the abutments, come into contact with the sheet previously emplaced upon the platform and are thus definitely and positively located to properly position the sheet being emplaced when it is separated from the abutment assemblies.

In one construction there are provided guide rollers which are moved into contact with the sheet already in place upon the platform. The successive generatrices of these rollers as they come into contact with the sheet already in position are then used to guide into final location the sheet being emplaced.

By the use of at least two of the abutment means, as previously described, all of which come into contact with the sheet previously stacked, it is assured that the sheet being emplaced makes contact throughout its length with the lower edge portion of the one previously positioned, so that parallelism and full surface-to-surface contact between the two are attained.

A further object is to provide a new and useful method of handling and stacking sheets of fragile material and by which breakage and damage to edges of the sheets are reduced or eliminated.

The drawing shows a form of the invention of particular utility in the glass-making industry, as well as in other industries, in the safe and efficient handling of sheets of predetermined sizes.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic side elevation showing the general lay-out and means by which a sheet of material is transferred from a conveyor to loading mechanism and by such mechanism emplaced upon a mobile platform in an essentially vertical position;

FIGURE 2 is a view to an enlarged scale, partly in section, of one of two duplicate mechanisms embodying the invention, with its parts in the position they occupy when a sheet of material is being moved horizontally into engagement therewith;

FIGURE 3 is a view corresponding to FIGURE 2 but showing the parts in the positions they occupy as the sheet moves into the vertical and is about to be deposited upon the platform in surface-to-surface contact with the sheet immediately previously emplaced; and

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view showing the complete assembly with parts essentially in the same positions as those depicted upon FIGURE 2.

Referring in detail to the drawing and in particular to FIGURE 1, the sheets, one of which is identified at 1, move leftwardly and horizontally over a conveyor genererally identified at 2. From the conveyor the sheets are transferred in succession as they arrive, to a mobile loading table including a chassis 6 having a frame 3 carrying a table or sheet support 4. The frame and table fonm a unit and are pivotable relatively to the chassis about a horizontal transverse axis 7 adjacent the forward end of the chassis, from the horizontal position shown upon FIGURES l, 2 and 4, in the direction of arrow 1, to an essentially vertical position. Rollers 33 spaced and located at selected points over the surface of the table, are journaled thereon by bearings 33a, one of which appears upon FIGURE 3. These rol'lers are journaled on parallel horizontal axes and conjointly with rollers 31, FIGURE 2, support the sheet for facile translation in its own horizontal plane. Abutments 5, of which there are at least two, are connected with table 4 along the leading edge thereof and are engaged by the leading edge of each sheet as it is being emplaced. The path of this leading edge is generally indicated by the arrow, FIGURE 1. Chassis 6, as indicated, is mobile, as by being mounted upon wheels 6a, so that it may be easily horizontally translated from a first position wherein its trailing edge is closely adjacent conveyor 2, to a second position with its leading edge closely adjacent platform 8, as indicated by arrow f1, FIGURE 1. As the table rises about axis 7, abutments move into recesses in platform 8 and eventually the sheet moves into full surface contact with the one previously emplaced.

The present invention concerns more particularly the mounting and operation of abutments 5. Referring especially to FIGURE 4, the forward edge of table 4 includes a channel 4a which has bearing brackets 19, 19a, 19b etc., secured to the surface thereof and which, as shown, is uppermost when the table is horizontal as in FIGURES 1, 2 and 4. The brackets are horizontally aligned and jointly journal a shaft 18. This shaft mounts two duplicate assemblies 5, as is clear from FIGURE 4.

Confining attention to one of these assemblies, an abutment support is generally identified at 15, and comprises a sleeve 17 keyed to shaft 18 and a pair of axially spaced parallel arms or projections integrally connected therewith and extending radially forwardly therefrom. The anms have enlarged or widened ends which are interconnected at their lower edges by a depending U-shaped yoke 29, shown as integral with the arms. In addition, the enlarged ends are each provided with a pair of links 24. Referring especially to FIGURE 2, it is noted that the links are pivoted to the arm 26 on respective pivots which are there vertically spaced. These links and their pivots are matched by a like construction carried by the opposite enlarged end of the second arm 16.

Each abutment 5 comprises a generally T-shaped body having its stem 12 smoothly fitting between arms 16 for movement therebetween. The crossarm 9 of the T has a rearwardly-facing surface covered with a pad or strip 10 of rubber or other resilient material and against which the leading edge of sheet 1 abuts. At its respective ends, cross arm 9 journals rollers 11 having a common transverse horizontal axis. Reference to FIGURE 2 shows that these rollers are just forwardly of a vertical plane through the 'face of pad 10.

Stem 12 has a pair of pins 13 projecting from each side wall thereof. Each pin projects through a respective one of a pair of slots 14 in the corresponding arm 16. Each slot is arcuate about a respective one of pivots 26 as a center. Each pin extends into and has a smooth pivotal fit within a bearing aperture in the distal end of a corresponding link 24. The arrangement and construction are such that links 24 are at all times parallel and form a parallelogram connection between arms 16 and abutment stem 12. For instance, as is seen from FIGURE 2, the intersection of the axes of pivots 26 and of pins 13 with a plane normal to shaft 18, define the four corners of a defonmable parallelogram. Thus abutment 5 may move between arms 16 but is constrained so that its stem 12 remains parallel to itself; and rollers 11 move in arcuate paths. Of course, there may be but two pins secured in stem 12 each having its ends projecting from opposite sides thereof and extending through a respective slot 14, with a smooth sliding fit. That is to say, each pin 13 on one side of stem 12 is aligned with a corresponding pin on the other side.

From FIGURE 2 it is noted that when the parts are in position to receive the end edge of an advancing sheet 1, slots 14 extend generally upwardly and forwardly; and that a tension coil spring 25 is secured at one end at 27 to the lower end of stem 12 and at its other end to the bigh-t portion of yoke 29, and thus acts to urge abutment 5 downwardly as viewed in this figure, until the ends of pins 13 engage the lower ends of the slots. Means not shown may be provided for adjusting the tension of spring 25, to regulate the force with which it urges abutment 5 into the position of FIGURE 2.

Arms 20, 20a are secured as by keys, to the respective ends of shaft 18. Confining attention to arm 20, a yoke 21 is pivoted to the free end of the arm at 21a. The yoke is integral with a bolt 22 passing downwardly through an aperture in a plate 34 having one end riveted to channel 4a and projecting rearwardly therefrom. Upper and lower nuts of which upper nut 23 only appears upon FIGURE 4, are threaded upon the bolt and may be turned to eflect a fine rotational adjustment of shaft 18 and to fixedly maintain this adjustment. Since the arm 20a is parallel with 20 and is similarly connected between shaft 18 and a plate, not shown, corresponding to plate 34, it is sufiicient to identify yoke 21a and bolt 22a.

The abutment construction and its connection with table 4, as just described, is duplicated at the other side of the table. It is therefore sufficient to identify generally this second abutment 5a, sleeves 17a, support 15a, links 24a, rollers 11a and spring 25a. Of course, there may be more than two of these duplicate abutment assemblies, all transversely aligned and spaced along channel 4a and each carried by shaft 18. The rearwardly-facing wall of stem 12 has a bearing bracket 30 bolted thereto, This bracket journals a roller 31 which, in the position of the parts shown upon FIGURE 2, has its uppermost element essentially coplanar with the corresponding elements of rollers 33, and is a little below the level of rollers 11. These rollers are shown as having their uppermost elements substantially tangent to, and spaced slightly forwardly of the leading edge of the plane of the upper face of sheet 1. This particular relation is not absolutely essential. In fact, in the majority of installations it is advantageous that the rollers project slightly above the upper face of the sheet. Indeed, the most satisfactory position of the guide rollers 11 would be one wherein their common axis lies in the plane of the top or upper face of the sheet being emplaced,

and almost touching the lower edge thereof. However, such a relation of the parts is not practicable because it requires rollers having too short a radius; and this, in turn, calls for axles which are not strong enough to sustain the forces inherently applied to them.

On the other hand, rollers 11 should not be located so that they project excessively above the plane of the upper face of the sheet because such an arrangement requires too great a retraction of stem 12 and may result in damage to the lower edges of the sheets.

In order to prevent the lower edge of sheet 1 from coming into contact with the lower edge of sheet 32 previously emplaced, it is desirable that rubber strip project slightly above or out of the plane of upper face of sheet 1 so that when this strip comes into contact with sheet 32, the crushing force exerted thereby on this sheet will be in a direction tangent to the sheet.

. In operation, a sheet such as 1, moves off the conveyor 2. At this time table 4 has its rearward end closely adjacent the conveyor so that the sheet, supported by rollers 33, is easily moved onto the table with its forward edge engaging strips, 10 and resting on rollers 31 of abutment assemblies 5. The table is then translated the relatively short distance to platform 8, whereupon the table is elevated about axis 7 by hand or by known power means such as a worm and gear mechanism driven by an electric motor through a speed reducer.

As the table rises toward the vertical about axis 7, a vertical force component due to weight of the sheet, is gradually and increasingly applied to the rubber strips 10 and thereby to stems 12. The component is at first opposed by springs 25. But as the table and sheet continue their approach to the vertical, the component increases to the point where the tension of the springs is overcome, and stems 12 and all parts carried thereby move about pivots 26 of links 24. As will be noted from FIGURE 3, this movement, as pins 13 ride in and along arcuate slots 14, has a component which moves the stem 12 and rollers 11 toward sheet 32previously emplaced, until the rollers contact this sheet.

On continued pivotal movement from the position of FIGURE 3, rollers 11 and stems 12 are forced slightly to the right by engagement between these rollers and sheet 32. At the same time, roller 31 moves slightly forwardly relatively to rollers 11, and finally nudges sheet 1 off pads 10. The sheet then moves downwardly smoothly and accurately with its lower edge in full line contact with the surface of sheet 32. As soon as the weight of the sheet is removed from the abutments, they are drawn back by springs 25, free and clear of the sheet, until pins 13 engage the ends of the slots as in FIGURE 2. The sheet glides smoothly downwardly a short distance into fully emplaced position. The table is then returned to position adjacent conveyor 2, while being lowered or pivoted back to the horizontal, ready to receive the next sheet coming 01f the conveyor.

Thus each sheet is elevated smoothly and without jar, so that danger of breakage or chipping of the lower edges thereof is practically eliminated. Furthermore, precise collocation between platform 8 and table 4 is not necessary so long as rollers 11 engage sheet 32 as sheet 1 nears the vertical position.

Description of operation has been confined to one abutment assembly, but it will be understood that both assemblies, or all of them when more than two are provided, operate simultaneously and conjointly, to emplace each sheet in succession in the manner described.

While I have thus disclosed the invention as presently preferred by me, numerous changes of shape, form, dimensions both relative and absolute, as well assubstitutions of equivalents, will readily occur to those skilled in the art, after a study of the foregoing disclosure. Hence the disclosure should be taken in an illustrative rather than a limiting sense. All changes, modifications and substitutions are reserved, within the scope of the subjoined claims.

Having now fully disclosed the invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Sheet handling apparatus comprising a table defining a plane, means mounting said table for pivoting about a first normally horizontal axis parallel with said plane, from a first horizontal position to a second vertical position, a pair of abutments carried by said! table at one edge thereof, to engage and support an edge of a sheet thereon, and means operated by the increasing gravitational component of the weight of the sheet effective upon said abutments, to move each said abutment transversely outwardly of said plane, in response to pivoting of said table from said first to said second positions.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, and means connected with said abutments and yieldingly opposing movement thereof transversely outwardly of said plane.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, a shaft, bearing means journaling said shaft on said table for rotation about a second axis parallel with said first axis, each said abutment being mounted on said shaft in spaced relation therealong, and means operable to fix said shaft in a selected position of rotational adjustment relatively to said table.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, roller means carried by said table and supporting a sheet thereon in a predetermined plane thereabove, each said abutment comprising a member having a head and a shank extending therefrom, guide means mounting said shank to said table for guided movement parallel with itself, normal to said plane, from a first limiting position with said head substantially in said plane, to a second limiting position with said head forwardly and outwardly of said plane, antifriction means carried by each said abutment and contacting the lower surface of a sheet on said table when the edge thereof engages said abutments, means yieldingly urging said abutments into said first position, said abutments moving automatically to second position in response to pivotal elevation of said table about said first axis, toward the vertical.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, and a pair of rollers journaled on a common axis at respective ends of said head, each said roller having its upper peripheral element adjacent said plane and rearwardly of the sheet-contacting surface of said head, said surface comprising resilient material.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, said abutments being moved to said second position by and in response to the force component parallel with said table and effective on said vabutments, of the weight of a sheet on the table.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, said guide means comprising a pair of arms fixed with and extending forwardly from said table and receiving said shank between them, and parallelogram link connections between said shank and arms.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, said parallelogram link interconnection comprising first and second pairs of parallel links each pivoted at one end to a respective arm and at its other end to a respective one of a pair of pins fixed with said shank and extending through a respective one of a plurality of slots in said arms, each said slot being arcuate about the pivot of its link, said slots determining said first and second limiting positions.

9. The method of emplacing sheets of material in essentially vertical stacked relation upon a horizontal platform, comprising, moving a horizontally-disposed sheet contiguous to an edge of said platform and above the plane thereof, pivoting the sheet upwardly about a horizontal axis substantially parallel with and adjacent said edge, while initially supporting the sheet by abutments engaging an edge thereof, and moving said abutments under the action of the increasing component of weight of the sheet effective upon abutments, as the sheet being emplaced approaches the vertical and moves into contact with the sheet previously emplaced, and forcing the sheet being emplaced, off said abutments.

10. The method of claim 9, and retracting said abutments as the sheet moves off them, to effect smooth gliding movement of the sheet being emplaced, downwardly to rest on the platform in full surface-to-surface contact with the next contiguous emplaced sheet.

11. Sheet handling and stacking apparatus comprising, a chassis, a table, means mounting said table on said chassis for pivoting about a horizontal axis adjacent and parallel with one edge of said table, a shaft mounted on said table parallel with, above, and adjacent said edge, and a pair of abutments carried by said shaft in spaced relation therealong, for engaging the edge of a sheet resting on said table, each said abutment comprising a sleeve fixed about said shaft, a pair of arms carried by and extending forwardly of said sleeve, a shank vertically mounted between said arms, means connecting said arms and shank to guide the latter in movement parallel with itself, forwardly and outwardly with respect to said shaft, between first and second limiting positions, a head fixed with the upper end of said shank, parallel with said shaft and positioned to engage the edge of a sheet on said table, a pair of rollers journaled to the respective ends of said head on a common axis, said connecting means operating to move each said shank and head outwardly and forwardly with respect to said shaft, by and in response to the force component effective on said abutments, parallel with said table, due to the weight of a sheet thereon,

and roller means carried by said shank and effective to force a sheet forwardly off said head in response to tilting of said table and sheet thereon, substantially into vertical position.

12. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the sheets supported by the pivoting are deposited on a stand to be stacked on said stand in a near vertical position, comprising guiding means carried by said abutments which are able to come into contact with the sheet precedently deposited on the stand and to cause the abutments to further move under the reaction exerted by said precedently deposited sheet on said guiding means, until said abut ments are brought in the exact position for placing the sheet on the stand.

13. Apparatus according to claim 12 comprising means for withdrawing the abutments from the stand as soon as they are no longer supporting the weight of the sheet.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,154,757 4/1939 Labom'barde 214-7 3,279,664 10/1966 Lynch 214-7 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,180,681 10/1964 Germany.

ROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner.

R. J. SPAR, Assistant Examiner. 

